Lang
1/2/21
An Ottumwa woman faces charges that she abandoned her child in Iowa City.
Iowa City Police say witnesses observed 42-year-old Julie Christy yelling at and hitting a child inside a car parked in the lot at Los Agaves Mexican Grill on North Dodge Street just before 3:15 on October 7th. Christy then allegedly kicked the child out of the vehicle and drove away.
Arriving officers determined that the child did not live in Iowa City and was not familiar with the area. The child also had a scratch and redness on the arm where he or she had allegedly been hit by Christy.
Further investigation determined that Christy had earlier driven the father of the child, with whom she has a no-contact order out of Wapello County, from Ottumwa to a medial appointment at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Iowa River Landing location in Coralville. The child who had been abandoned at Los Agaves is shared between the two.
Christy was booked into the Johnson County Jail just before 4:15 Thursday afternoon and charged with Child Endangerment Causing Bodily Injury and a No-Contact Order Violation. If convicted on both charges, she faces a maximum of over five years in prison.